I'm looking at a 2011 Sport soon. From what I can tell, 2011 is the last year of the original front bumper in the US and the 2012-2013 got the exterior cosmetic upgrade (front bumper, grill, headlights), but I'm also reading differences in the interior that I can't seem to find picture comparisons of. Is that correct?

What sort of interior differences are there between a 2011 and a 2012?
Do 2012-2013 have more interior sound deadening? Can this be added to 09-11?

Would any of these changes inside the 2nd gen lifespan cause you to choose a pre or post facelift model if given the options to choose one or the other?

 

At least some of the 2012-2013s got audio controls on the steering wheel. You can do that yourself, and there have been tutorials here on that process.

I believe the 2012-2013s got better/thicker/sound-proofier windshield/window glass, which supposedly cuts down a bit on interior noise. I'm sure you could swap that into a 2009-2011, but it would likely be expensive.

I'm not sure if there was additional interior sound deadening added to the 2012-2013s. I did extensive sound deadening in my 2010 Sport. It's not difficult but is very time consuming if you want to do an effective job (and why would you want to do an ineffective job?). The return-on-investment will all depend on how much you appreciate a (slightly) quieter interior.

 

Did you remove carpet, head liner, and interior plastic panels and add some peel'n'stick/Dynamat? If so, I imagine it's worth it to do over a weekend. I did it on a 1st gen Nissan Xterra and it made a pretty obvious improvement. But like you said, it's just time consuming to do right.

 

I have responded in detail in various sound deadening posts, so I won't rewrite it all here. If I have time later I will try to find them and provide links. But to answer your direct question, I removed everything from the interior except dash and headliner. My dad talked me out of those; if I was doing it again I would remove the head liner as well.

I watched a bunch of Youtube videos that talked about doing sound deadening "over a weekend." That was not my experience. I spent 3-4 hours per day, five or six days/week, over a couple weeks to do the work at the level I wanted to do it. Maybe I'm just really slow (and lazy), but even on a small car like a Fit I'm not sure how much I could have accomplished in 8-10 hours (again, maybe others can work more/harder "over a weekend" but I have other commitments that can't be set completely aside).

 

I removed everything except the A-pillar trim, dash, and headliner. If I could go back I would probably remove the headliner and work on the roof; at the time my dad talked me out of it.

Many of the Youtube videos and articles I read when planning this project talked about "over a weekend." I spent 3-5 hours, 5-6 days/week, for several weeks during Covid, so I wouldn't have gotten very far over a weekend. Maybe I'm just slow/lazy, or too particular, but I figure if you're going to do something like this you probably want to do it as well as you can.

Here are a few posts where I talked about my experiences. One of them has some pictures.

https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/2nd-...ng-advice.html
https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/2nd-...-proofing.html
https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/gene...-offering.html